


caroling

by CrazyPrepared (writerofberk)



Series: have yourself a merry little christmas [5]
Category: Trolls (Movies 2016 2020)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:26:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28113102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writerofberk/pseuds/CrazyPrepared
Summary: "Do you guys have a route mapped out already?" Branch asks. "Or a schedule?"Everybody turns to stare at him.Cooper frowns. "What is a 'schedule'?""I believe," Biggie murmurs to him, "it's a kind of cake."
Series: have yourself a merry little christmas [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2053290
Comments: 10
Kudos: 27





	caroling

"Do you guys have a route mapped out already?" Branch asks. "Or a schedule?"

Everybody turns to stare at him.

Cooper frowns. "What is a 'schedule'?"

"I believe," Biggie murmurs to him, "it's a kind of cake."

Branch almost drops his head into his hands.

But Poppy just laughs. "Don't be silly, Branch, you don't need a route or a schedule to go caroling! You just gotta feel the music in your soul, buddy!"

"Okay, okay," Branch waves a hand at her, "first off, you need a route because, if you're going door-to-door caroling and you _don't_ have a route, you risk hitting the same pods twice."

Everybody stares at him some more.

"I don't understand," Biggie puts his hand in the air, like a little trolling in class. "Is that _bad_?"

"Very," Branch tells him. "You guys did it to me every year for the last ten years."

"Uh, yeah, that wasn't an accident," Smidge shakes her head.

Poppy throws her hands in the air. "Okay, how _else_ were we going to get him to see the magic of Christmas?"

Branch opens his mouth, but there's just too much to unpack there to even open the suitcase at all. "You know what? Forget it. We can work with no route, but we can't work with no schedule. It's too dangerous to be out in the cold for a long time. Frostbite can set in—"

Guy Diamond lets out a groan. Chenille rolls her eyes.

"—in as little as fifteen minutes," Branch plows on anyway—he'll be damned if he stands back and just lets them all freeze. "So we should probably take periodic breaks to go indoors. Even just a quick ten-minute pause every Hug-Time is better than nothing."

"Every Hug-Time?" Poppy perks up a little. "Guys, wait, that's great!"

Branch blinks. That's just about the last thing he expected to come out of her mouth. "It _is_?"

"It is?" Smidge echoes blankly.

"Yeah!" Poppy beams. "If we stop for ten minutes every Hug-Time, we can warm up like Branch wants, _and_ have ten minutes for a group hug! It's perfect!"

Biggie brightens. "Oh, you're right! Good thinking, Branch!"

"That's not what I meant."

" _Now_ it is!" Smidge pumps a fist in the air again.

"Think about it, Branch! Group hugs are _warm_!" Poppy wraps her arms around herself. "Nothing will beat frostbite like a good group hug!"

"I can think of seventeen things, just off the top of my head, that would beat frostbite better than a group hug. Would you like me to list them for you? I can go alphabetically or in order of effectiveness."

"Hey!" Guy Diamond snaps his fingers and a thin spray of silver glitter trickles from his hands falls, bright and sparkling, down into the snow. "Do you guys want to go caroling before Christmas Day or _not_?"

"Yes!" Poppy beams.

"No," Branch says flatly.

But when the Pack starts singing, he does, too.

(And, forty-five minutes later, when the Pack's bracelets go off, Branch doesn't even get the _don't even think about it_ off his tongue before he's pulled into a—admittedly very warm—group hug that lasts about eight minutes too long.)

**Author's Note:**

> pour one out for Branch, he's just trying to keep everybody safe


End file.
